30 June 2009

I finally got around to launching something at namesonnodes.org. No, it's not Names on Nodes itself, unfortunately. The project is taking a huge amount of time. But I thought I'd post something, so here's a little Flex application I made (using the new Flash Builder 4 Beta!) using a smidgen of the technology behind Names on Nodes.

Have you ever been discussing phylogeny online and wished there was an easy way to make a readable cladogram? (95% of readers leave.) Those of you who are left, check this out: Text Tree Maker. Just type in a Newick tree string, and voilá! Okay, so typing in a Newick tree string is not that easy in the first place, but it is easier.

24 June 2009

I've been working on a couple of projects to do with stem-humans. Naturally, these efforts necessitate creating a working phylogeny. I thought I'd post what I more or less have so far. I haven't done any rigorous work here; I'm just trying to piece things together from various publications.

This is a phylogeny of all known species within Clade(Homo sapiensLinnaeus 1758 ← Troglodytes gorilla Savage vide Savage & Wyman 1847), including some unnamed, fragmentary species that can only be differentiated from other species by location and/or time. (Note: Sahelanthropus tchadensisBrunet & al. 2002 is excluded because it doesn't seem to be clear that it does fall within this clade.) I've included links for all citations with permanent identifiers, when available, or popups with fuller information, when not. The phylogeny is interspersed with a rank-based taxonomy. (Unfortunately, there are no published phylogeny-based names to apply here.) Outlined circles indicate that the species may be ancestral to what are shown as sister groups. Species names are listed with their original prenomina (genera), regardless of current placement. I've added a note when the listed species is the type of its prenominal genus or another genus.